Failed Attempt at Team Bonding
by cometothedarksidewehavecookies
Summary: Short aftermath of Countrycide. Why Torchwood doesn't do Team Bonding Exercises.


AN disclaimer: All recognisable characters don't belong to me.

AN: Just found something I had written months ago after watching Countrycide, so thought I'd post it and see what you all think of it.

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Aftermath of Countrycide.

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After Gwen just HAD to talk to Evan Sherman Jack watched her walk through the hustle and bustle of the clean-up operation trying to contain her tears until she was alone. Owen shot him a look which Jack couldn't quite decipher. He knew that Evan would only antagonise her, she gave away that she was desperate for answers, a rookie mistake for an interrogation.

Jack wanted to get home, get his team home make sure they were alright.

Jack nodded to Owen to get him into the car waving Tosh over who was being seen to by ambulance crew, Ianto was sitting in the open boot waiting to go home, saying he'd already been check out.

"Fuck this, let's get out of this hellhole." Owen had snarled getting into the front passenger seat of the SUV.

Ianto heard Owen and moved slowly getting into the back of the SUV after Tosh who sat in the middle being the smaller of the two women.

"Gwen, we're going." Jack shouted to her where she was standing some distance from the SUV away from the ambulance and police cars.

Gwen gave herself a few minutes to compose herself before being the last to slide into the SUV in the back next to Tosh.

Jack observed his team on the way home, Owen was sullen, but he'd be okay, Gwen was openly suffering whilst Tosh and Ianto were quiet. Jack observed that Tosh had moved shortly into the journey so that she could hold Ianto's hand.

"Fucking cannibals," Owen muttered as they passed Pontypridd.

No one replied to Owens dialogue.

"Had to be in the countryside didn't it." Owen continued under his breath. "Bloody Welsh."

Ianto and Gwen both huffed their dispute.

"In case you forgot they were about to eat me, it had nothing to do with them being Welsh." Ianto muttered.

"Yeah, sorry." Owen winced not forgetting the terrified look on Ianto's face with a meat cleaver pressed to his neck as they watched helpless.

"So much for a team bonding exercise eh Jack." Owen said changing subject.

Jack scowled darkly. It definitely wasn't a good mission, especially since it was supposed to be a dumb police job that they actually didn't have to do, his statement about investigating the rift spreading were a little thin, he doubted it was the case before he even suggested the mission.

"Yeah, so much for an easy mission." Jack said quietly.

Once they hit Cardiff Jack drove to the hub before offering everyone a lift home since at least 2/3rds of his team was injured in some respect.

Owen quickly checked over Gwen's shotgun wound before handing her some meds and saying he'd drop her home to save Jack the trouble.

Owen and Gwen swiftly left the hub, Jack rolled his eyes so much for Gwen holding onto her relationship with Rhys, he frowned as he realised that Owen didn't bother checking over Ianto and Tosh himself before leaving.

"Come on you two, I'll get you home." Jack sighed hoping that he'd at least make sure they were safely home and picked up some painkillers from Owens stock to give to both of them who at the least would have bruises and aches and at the most a few broken ribs.

"I just wanted to check on something quickly." Tosh smiled in apology as she went to her computer terminal she put her bag on her desk so she was at least halfway ready to leave.

"I need to feed Myfanwy and the residents." Ianto said quietly before rushing away to do so.

Jack frowned.

"Jack, go help him?" Tosh murmured.

"Yeah was thinking that."

Ianto was obviously more injured than he let on, but he steadfastly went through his daily evening routine, just because he had almost been eaten by human cannibals worse than some of the aliens they'd experienced here didn't mean that the Pterodactyl Myfanwy or the Weevils suffered from a missing meal. Ianto Jones was an incredible person.

Once Jack convinced Ianto to leave the rest of it for another day he peeled Tosh away from her computer and put them both back in the SUV.

"I don't really fancy going home alone." Tosh said quietly as they pulled away from the hub.

Ianto nodded in agreement before turning to Jack. "Go to my place first."

Jack just nodded.

"You should come up, no point being alone right now." Ianto said turning to Tosh in the backseat who nodded smiling happily.

"I'll see you both tomorrow." Jack said a moment later as they both moved to get out feeling slightly dejected.

Ianto turned back a bit bemused. "You don't want to join us? We'll order dinner in."

Jack smiled and nodded turning the SUV off and following them upstairs.

"You've redecorated." Jack commented as they entered his flat.

"Boots off sir." Ianto replied pointing at the offending shoewear.

"Yes sir." Jack smiled glad that Ianto was feeling better, he toed off his boots and put them next to Ianto and Tosh's shoes hanging his coat on the hook.

The last time Jack had been here was a few days after Ianto's suspension, he told Ianto that he was to have four weeks off, that he needed time away from work to grieve and start to move on. Back then Ianto's flat was bare, most of his belongings were still boxed up as if he had just moved in and not several months previously. Ianto had admitted that he was concentrating too much on Lisa to bother with his flat at the time.

Now Ianto must have used those weeks to unpack, and decorate his flat. It was done very tastefully and Jack eagerly looked around for the personal touches that would help him define Ianto, who was such a mystery at times.

Tosh looked around herself, finding her looking at a good picture of Ianto with Lisa, before Torchwood destroyed their lives.

"I don't know about you two but I'm thinking of going vegetarian for a few weeks." Ianto commented as he joined them with a variety of take away leaflets.

"Definitely." Tosh agreed wholeheartedly as they picked their choices for food.

Hours later after a completely vegetarian dinner was eaten and some crappy rom com was on the tv Jack observed Ianto and Tosh, he honestly hadn't been watching the film, you see one rom-com you've seen them all he was much more interested in his team. Tosh and Ianto were holding hands again, but Jack thought it was like they just needed the human touch to ground them, nothing sexual about it at all.

Jack looked as Tosh submersed herself in the story, trying to forget the things they saw today whilst Ianto on the other hand looked half comatosed. His eyes were glassy and unfocused, staring in the direction of the television but not seeing it. He had his head propped up on one hand, leaning onto the arm of the sofa he was one, his other hand was being held tightly by Tosh. Jack noticed that his ribs were hurting several times he had winced in the sudden movement and Jack noticed that he was trying to breath shallowly like you did when you had broken ribs.

Shortly before the film finished Tosh had dozed off into a light sleep.

"I'll put her in my spare room sir." Ianto said anticipating the question Jack had on the tip of his tongue.

Jack nodded and moved over to Tosh, picking her up gently and following Ianto to the spare room.

"I doubt she'd be happy if you undressed her." Ianto said dryly but with a hint of amusement under the words.

Jack grinned at Ianto. "You spoil my fun Jones." He nudged Tosh awake gently and Ianto gave her some clothes to sleep in.

Standing in the hallway Ianto looked close to the edge, Jack guessed that he'd been holding on to help Tosh, once she was fine and asleep in the other room Ianto had nothing else to do, and helplessness wasn't an emotion Ianto dealt with well, especially of late.

"Do you want me to stay a bit longer?" Jack asked cautiously.

"Of course not sir, you should go on home." Ianto withdrew behind his mask, slipping into his butler role and standing straight.

"I told you to call me Jack, especially out of work." Jack replied softly taking a small step towards the younger man. "Come on, I could do with a drink, got anything stronger than beer?" Jack didn't take the dismissal instead pushing Ianto into company.

Ianto nodded and Jack was pleased that he looked rather relieved it appeared Jack's hunch that Ianto didn't want to be alone was right.

"Just a stupid mission to get the team gelled, what did I do? Made things worse." Jack said an hour or so later and he and Ianto made their way through some whisky that Ianto found.

Ianto was taking it light on the alcohol, mindful of injuries but it was taking the edge off the aches he had that the painkillers hadn't quite reached.

"I dunno, Tosh and I bonded a bit over joint mortal peril." Ianto deadpanned remembering the scene just before he had helped Tosh escape with a little more humour.

Jack snorted. "Yeah she told me. Chinese food," He scoffed "Honestly, she's Japanese!" Jack laughed. "But maybe next time knee him in the balls, not headbutt, although that was incredible brave of you." Jack traced the bump on Ianto's forehead that came from headbutting Evan Sherman to help Tosh escape.

Ianto shrugged. "Just tried to escape, nothing brave about that."

"You tried, you kept your head together and got one of you out there for help, and you got a beating in return." Jack shook his head in anger withdrawing his hand from Iantos face avoiding the temptation to carry on touching him.

"What will happen to them?" Ianto asked softly looking down at the glass clutched in his hand.

"Criminal proceedings, have called in UNIT to make sure that none of them get off on a technicality or something, make sure that they go to prison, I could have made it worse and made it a UNIT prison, I'll decide that for sure in the morning."

"You have a lot of sway with UNIT." Ianto commented frowning remembering that Hartman at Torchwood One had little to no sway over them and several times they had butted heads over some tech like children fighting in a playground, yet Jack here could get them to do things for him, favours sure, but they actually listened."

Jack shrugged. "Throw some big names around and they tend to listen. Back before I got the team together I had to rely on UNIT's help for the mundane things in Cardiff, you know Weevils and such."

"They helped you?"

"I'm pretty sure they wanted the hubs location, and some tech in return but gave them nothing, well, nothing important." Jack replied.

"Why are you at Torchwood?" Ianto asked after a pause.

Jack didn't reply right away he looked at Ianto, both hands cradling his glass of whisky. "I'm waiting for someone, it's been a long wait."

"Who?"

"The right kind of Doctor." Jack said absentmindedly.

Ianto frowned, did he mean THE Doctor, somehow Jacks inflection made Ianto think of the Doctor, the one that Torchwood was supposed to hunt.

Ianto instead nodded. He was at Torchwood Cardiff now, he better think that way. "Do you know how much longer you'll have to wait?" He asked as if conversationally.

"Soon, within the next few years." Jack shrugged, he couldn't tell Ianto that he was told by the Tarot girl that it would be shortly after the century turned again when he was visited by her in the 1890's.

"And you'll leave Torchwood?" Ianto attempted to sound casual but thought he didn't quite manage it.

"It was my intention."

"Was?"

"Well Suzie kind of went off the rails, I need to sort out a new second in command."

Ianto nodded in reply. "Just, if it's Owen, can you let me know so I can find my own replacement and leave too?"

Jack laughed. "Don't want Owen as the boss?"

"Owen's you know." Ianto waved his hand around vaguely trying to think of a nice word to say about him. "Well, maybe not management material."

"Gwen maybe in a few years." Jack said thinking. "She's too naïve at the moment, and a bit stubborn."

"I think the work is pig headed."

Jack nodded in agreement thinking back to earlier in the day, he needed to go over gun safety and her rookie mistake of jumping in the line of fire that caused her to get shot in the first place.

"I agree, she could be good with a little training."

"You're not suggesting Tosh?" Jack asked curiously.

"Tosh is brilliant at everything she does, but she gets involved in her own projects, and she can't stand up to Owen or Gwen, some people aren't meant to lead."

Jack agreed. "She's too timid." Jack didn't mention Tosh's contract with UNIT and himself, for all Jack knew after her 5 years were up Tosh would leave.

"She can be very fierce though." Ianto pointed out.

"Oh yes, I know." Jack chuckled. "Not suggesting yourself?"

"I'm the tea boy." Ianto muttered self-depreciatingly.

"You are so much more than that." Jack said softly but sternly trying to get it through to the younger man. "You conned the con man, for months, that's impressive. You have done a brilliant job sorting those archives out the hub has never run so smoothly and no one ever has to request extra supplies or things because you get them before we think we need more. You keep the hub and all of us running."

"Just organisational skills."

"It's more than that. You're here for Tosh tonight, made sure she's okay. Earlier on you protected her, helped her escape when she is the senior agent. Don't let you think you're anything less than amazing."

"Con man eh?" Ianto smirked.

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, I used to be a conman before someone set me on the right path." Jack grinned at Ianto.

"I can definitely see you doing that." Ianto chuckled slightly at the mental image. "What changed you around?"

"Mind you for the record I wasn't being malicious, it was passive aggressive revenge." Jack said quickly. "Then two people who later became some of my greatest friends ran into me, I was trying to con them, it turned into a bit of a dangerous situation and I went with them once we smoothed things over."

Ianto nodded seeing the wistful look in Jacks eyes that told him that the older man missed them greatly.

"We got separated after about 6 or 7 months together and well been here ever since." Jack shrugged as he finished taking another sip of whisky.

"I should go." Jack said after a few comfortable minutes in silence as he noticed the time.

Ianto checked his watch. "I doubt that sir, you've had quite a bit to drink, you shouldn't be driving."

Jack shrugged. "I'm fine, I'll walk it off."

Ianto smirked and stood up collecting both their empty glasses. "What about the SUV? You can stay here tonight."

Jack stood up as well feeling slightly awkward. "Er, sure, I'll take the sofa since Tosh is on the spare bed."

Ianto shrugged. "You're not going to get much sleep on that thing, trust me." He chuckled.

"Mr Jones are you trying to get me into your bed?" Jack drawled smirking.

"Like I need to entice you sir." Ianto smirked retreating to his bedroom confident that Jack would follow.

Jack did follow Ianto into his room. They had slept together a few times, after the incident with Jasmine and the fairies Ianto had stayed behind to comfort Jack which ended up in Jacks bunker together. Jack also knew that Lisa was very prevalent in Iantos thoughts and he was still grieving her, it had surprised him that he was so bothered that Ianto told everyone that it was Lisa that he last snogged in Gwens stupid game.

"Where's Tosh?" Jack asked as he came out of Ianto's room the next morning after having a surprising long sleep.

"She left to go home to shower and change before work." Ianto replied from the kitchen where he was making some coffee.

"Probably should give everyone a day off." Jack murmured thinking of what happened the previous day.

"Maybe, but the rift doesn't stop for anyone." Ianto smiled handing Jack a cup.

"Mmmm, thanks." Jack sipped, it was even better than the coffee he made at the hub.

Jack observed later in the day that maybe the mission wasn't such a complete waste. Ianto and Tosh were close now, finally friends, whilst Gwen and Owen were literally attached to each other, thinking that no one noticed their flirting and bantering. Jack sighed to himself the team were closer, but split in two parts. Still that was better than nothing.

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